Moyes questions Rooney omission

13 Sep 2010 08:30:00

Everton boss David Moyes has questioned whether Manchester United left out Wayne Rooney solely because of the abuse he was likely to receive.
The build-up to Saturday's clash at Goodison Park was dominated by talk of Rooney and the reception he might receive at his former club, especially in the wake of recent allegations regarding his private life.
Ferguson made the decision not to select Rooney, explaining that it was 'simply because he gets terrible abuse' at Everton and the United manager did not want to subject him to that.
Moyes, who saw his side mount an astonishing late rally to claim a 3-3 draw, feels there may have been other reasons for Rooney's lack of involvement.
The Everton boss feels Rooney might have been left out as reminder to behave appropriately off the field, while he could also have been dropped for poor form so far this season.
Asked if he thought it was a worrying development for football for Rooney to be omitted because of the potential crowd response, Moyes said in The Times: "It might be, but maybe the manager there just felt it was the right decision not to play him here.
"Maybe he thought he was not playing that well, maybe he thought that he wanted to leave somebody out, maybe he thought his games hadn't been so (good).
"So I don't think you should put it all on that (the crowd).
"Maybe he was making sure everybody realises that if you play for Manchester United, you have to conduct yourself in a manner and our football club doesn't really care who you are.
"I'm sure the manager did what he thought was right."